After six months of development, GNOME has released the GNOME 51 desktop environment. To quickly evaluate the capabilities of GNOME 50 specialized Live builds based on openSUSE and installation image produced by the GNOME OS initiative. GNOME 51 is also already included in the experimental builds of Ubuntu 26.10 and Fedora 45.
In the new release:
- In the composite server Mutter, the mechanism for displaying frames on the screen has been redesigned, improving smoothness of output and eliminating stutters during animation and under heavy system load. Efficiencies of screen capture have been increased by reducing buffer copying operations, both in software and hardware rendering. The brightness level now persists between reboots or HDR mode switches.
- In the configurator (GNOME Settings), on devices with an accelerometer, an option has been added to automatically change landscape and portrait screen orientations when the device is rotated. Content centering has been improved. An option to automatically disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected has been implemented in the input device settings. Support for the insecure WEP protocol has been removed from wireless network settings. Added the ability to activate the SSH server when accessing a socket. Improved fingerprint registration interface. A button has been added to the About dialog to view release notes.
- The ability to forward smart cards has been added to the Remote Desktop tools to work with a locally connected smart card on a remote computer. For corporate networks, authentication via Kerberos is provided.
- The file manager now has an indicator showing the number of simultaneously
/Reports, release notes, official announcements.